BMW Mini Announce 850 Job Losses At Oxford Factory

I read in on The Times Online today that BMW Mini have laid off 850 agency workers at their plant in Oxford, apparently waiting until an hour before the shift was due to change to let the workers know. In effect this gave a large number of these agency staff just one hour’s notice of their redundancy. Not surprisingly, the agency staff in question have been up in arms about it, throwing fruit at the managers as they left the plant, and telling reporters that they feel they have been used.

I can’t really have too much sympathy with the now redundant staff, surely they must have known that eventually BMW Mini would have to lay them off, the news is full of stories about how the car industry is in dire straights, demand having dropped through the floor. Also, why on earth would they expect BMW Mini to show them any loyalty when they haven’t shown BMW Mini any loyalty in joining their workforce proper, rather than being employed as agency staff?

I suspect it comes down to the age old human emotion of greed. They probably earnt more money as agency staff, and were quite happy to take that and forgo paid holidays, pension etc when times were good, but as soon as times get bad, it’s BMW Mini’s fault for laying them off, as is their right to do with temporary staff. You can’t have your cake and eat it, goes the saying, so why do so many people think that they can?

I wonder how many of them have done anything to offset the effects of this redundancy? I wrote about ways to earn extra money in your spare time last week, it seems that it may have been a bit late for these workers, but it just goes to prove how useful having some extra income could be should your employer pull the plug on your job without much notice.

On the flip side, Kentucky Fried Chicken have announced plans to create 9,000 new jobs in the UK as part of an expansion drive. The expansion plans include opening a further 200 - 300 restaurants across the UK in the next three to five years.

This expansion drive will also see refurbishment for some existing restaurants which will pump money into the economies via the trades, assuming that KFC use UK contractors. Clearly it seems that despite the credit crunch and the ever growing health movement in our society, our appetite for fast food is still growing.

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